Where Shall We Meet?

Large organizations had a limited number of places to meet. Only Atlantic City, New York, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco could accommodate such giants as the AMA and the ACS in the 1950s.

Medium sized societies in the 300 to 500 attendance range like neurosurgical groups had many more choices.

There was a tendency for established societies to meet somewhere the organization had never met before and resorts were often favored over metropolitan areas. There was a hidden agenda (expressed privately) that the more expensive and remote the meeting site, the less likely that the youngsters could afford (time and money) to attend. The writer attended one Meeting Site Selection Committee meeting in which there was a serious effort made to schedule the next meeting in Tahiti - a place everyone on the committee wanted to go, where no had ever been, and there was a good chance few of the newcomers could afford to attend.

The CNS favored meeting in metropolitan areas in all regions of the USA and Canada (by rotation); places where housing and transportation was easy and affordable. In addition, an opportunity was provided for larger numbers of practicing neurosurgeons (members and non-members alike) and neurosurgical residents to attend and learn. This is the principle of selecting meeting sites that are in the best interest of the profession as a whole.